Pretty Woman uh Pretty Ryoga? (UkyoxRyoga)
by calwell
Summary: Ukyo has a new plan and again, it involves Ryoga. Their plan is to make Ryoga desirable to all women, most especially Akane, so that he can ask her to the Cherry Blossom Festival, leaving Ranma free to ask Ukyo. Loosely based on the movie Pretty Woman with Ryoga in place of Vivian Ward and Ukyo as Edward Lewis. No prostitutes, no corporate take overs lol.
1. The Plan

**The Plan**

 **...**

Writer's notes: Hello everyone! This is my first written piece in say about 10 years but one day, I suddenly remembered Ranma 1/2 and started watching it and reading a few fics here and there and then before you know it, an idea popped into my head. This story was loosely inspired by the movie Pretty Woman with Ryoga in place of the woman and Ukyo as Edward Lewis. However, this story **does not** have hookers and their reason for transformation **does not** have to do with Ukyo's scheme for over some corporate giant lol. I will try very hard to finish this one. Comments and reviews are welcome!

Before I start, I just wanted to note that I will not be going into much descriptive detail on the characters' appearance. This fic was created with the assumption that the readers know what each character (avaliable in the manga/anime) looks like. All new characters that I introduce will have short descriptive sentences to help you, the reader, imagine him/her.

 **...**

"You stupid pig! You messed up our plans again! If you had just waited for the cue, we would have split them up!" a young woman screamed, raising her iconic spatula high above her head, ready to swoop down on the tiny squealing pig at her feet.

"Sqeeee!" it yelled as it scampered to avoid the inevitable blow.

"Get back here!" yelled the young woman and she proceeded to chase the pig for several blocks.

"Come out now, Ryoga," the young woman said, huffing, strapping her spatula back on her back as stopped to catch her breath. "I'm not mad anymore."

"Sqee?" came a soft and terrified little sound as the little pig came out from behind a large empty bag of octopus chips.

"Hurry up now, you jackass," grumbled the girl, her voice significantly less angry than she had been only moments before. Exercise did wonders for blowing off steam. She crouched down next to the pig and sighed. "Why is it that out of all people, I end up being stuck with you as a partner?" She held out a hand and the pig tentatively moved forward to touch it with his snout. She gently grabbed the pig by the yellow bandana around its neck and started walking.

"Stop squirming!" she reprimanded sharply as she placed the pig onto the palm of her hand. The pig stopped moving and stood watching as the girl carried him back to an apartment above an okonomiyaki restaurant.

Setting the pig down on a table, the girl moved over to the kitchen counter and started to boil water on her stove. After a few minutes as the pig sat quietly, though it's face hesitant and a little wary, she grabbed the kettle and poured steaming hot water in a plastic bucket that she had placed on the floor a few minutes ago.

Picking up the pig, she dropped it into the hot water.

"Ahh! Hot! Would it hurt you to give me some warning?" shouted a very naked man, who jumped up quickly from the very spot the girl had dumped the pig just moments before.

The girl had turned her head so as to provide the young man with a modicum of modesty. "Oh my bad," she mumbled, rolling her eyes and tossing him a towel with her back still turned.

Deeming it safe to turn around, the young woman saw the young man with the towel around his waist, ringing his fingers through his hair in an attempt to dry it out. She rolled her eyes again and proceeded to untie the strap holding her giant spatula to her back.

"Uh, Ukyo?" the guy said tentatively, his voice small, "I'm sorry I failed... again." The tips of his two index fingers kept tapping against each other in rapid motion as he stood in front of the girl.

Ukyo placed her spatula against the wall of her kitchen. "You only had one job, Ryoga. All you had to do was come running when I gave you the signal. How could that have been so hard?"

Ryoga's shoulders hunched. "I don't know what happened, I just saw her and— and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Ukyo, waving her hand dismissively. "It's my fault, I should have known better than to count on you to hold back when it came to Akane." She then mumbled under her breath, "I should have just tied you up until the plan was ready."

"I said I'm sorry!" he said again, blushing, "but when I see her, it's like the sun had shined its rays on my face for the first time in many long years."

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "Well sorry ain't fixin' things, sugar." She set the kettle back down on the stove. "There's only a month left till the Cherry Blossom festival. You need to ask Akane so that Ranma will be free to ask me. That was the plan."

"I know, I know…" he said softly. "I just…"

"All you had to do was wait until I got Ranma away from Akane so you could swoop in and ask her in that ridiculously romantic way of yours." She rolled her eyes. "Oh forget it, jackass! Ugh, we need a new plan." She turned back around to face him, while pulling up a chair, noticing that Ryoga was still undressed. She saw the start of a furious blush forming on his face, slowly spreading to this neck.

Unabashedly, Ukyo stared at him. She knew she wasn't attracted to him, explaining the curious lack of pink tinge on her own cheeks but something about his half-dressed state was starting to turn the gears in her noggin.

Looking at him objectively, Ryoga was not a bad looking man. In fact, she thought, her gaze going over silky full head of hair, brown hazel eyes, long eyelashes, sharp features –while ignoring the pink cheeks—, broad shoulders, muscular build and a good height, he easily rivaled Ranma in terms of looks. Objectively, of course. She knew too that he was a skilled martial artist, the only other person whom Ranma had acknowledged as a real rival. That meant that he was athletic.

Her mind turned and turned and turned as she quietly gazed at Ryoga's bare torso, unaware of the fact that his blush had now reached his chest. Good looks… Athletic… Good looks… Athletic… Good

"I got it!" she yelled, suddenly jumping from her chair and sending a wide eyed and very confused Ryoga a few steps back.

"G-got what?"

Her eyes went to his quickly and a grin formed on her face. "Ryoga, we know that Ranchan won't ask Akane to the festival until the very last minute but that doesn't mean that he won't stop any other guys asking her."

Ryoga sputtered, "Well he won't stop me!" He was suddenly in his fighting stance.

She waved her hand dismissively turning toward the window, thinking as she spoke, "Yeah, yeah, I know. You're the definition of determined if I ever saw one. But that doesn't mean Akane won't hesitate to accept your offer right away. It usually goes like this, right? You ask her, she hesitates, looks at Ranchan and waits for his response. He doesn't do anything or insults her, she gets mad, she accepts your offer, and then when you think everything is going your way, what happens then?" Before even giving him a chance to answer, she continued, "that's right! Ranchan finds a way to make up with Akane and they end up going together!"

Realization dawned on Ryoga's face and anger started to replace the pink tinge of his cheeks. "Saotome!"

"Now hold your horses there, sugar," she said, turning her gaze back to the lost boy. "What we need to do is get Akane to turn to you."

"Huh?"

"We need Akane to fall in love with you."

The pink on Ryoga's face turned almost immediately to a deep shade of red and he started to twiddle his thumbs together and a shy, foolish grin started to form on his face. "A-ak-kane hehe in l-love with m-me."

A swift hand knocked him off the side of the head, "Snap out of it, will you! I'm trying to tell you my plans here! What we have to do is make Akane see you in a new light. This stuttering, foolish, knight in shining armor thing isn't working. You can barely even stay in her presence five minutes without running away or looking like a fool."

Ukyo started pacing while Ryoga quietly watched her, wide eyed wondering where she was going with her plans. He wasn't as big a fool as she claimed but he knew that Akane wasn't yet in the place to return his love. She was far too busy yelling at Ranma to notice much around her. If Ukyo had a plan to change that then…

The girl slapped her hands on the table right in front of where he stood, pulling him sharply from his thoughts. "We'll have to change you to be the kind of man that she'll want!"

"C-change me? How?"

"Of course, we'll also need a reason for you to be near her more regularly than you are now without being suspicious."

Thoughts of being with Akane ran through Ryoga's head. Spending more time with her was all he ever wanted.

He wasn't aware of Ukyo coming within a foot of his face, so lost was he in his own thoughts. "Did you hear me, Ryoga?"

He looked up, "What?"

"I said, make sure you're at Furinkan High at exactly 7 o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Uh, why exactly?"

The sigh that escaped Ukyo was slow and hinted at the level of exasperation she had for the lost boy, "to register you as a student."

"A s-student? M-me? At Furinkan w-with Akane?"

"Yes! Now will you stop stuttering!" She sat back down on her chair.

"I don't understand," said Ryoga, his arms out in front of him, "why am I going to Furinkan high?"

"Where you listening to me at all, Ryoga?"

"Uh," his index fingers started tapping against each other again as he turned his gaze to her kitchen door, wondering idly if he could make a dash for it before any more fists or worse, a spatula turned his way.

"Ugh! I said, we're going to register you as a student and then we will work to changing your stuttering, pathetic behavior." Ukyo's eyes lit up as if she were viewing it all in front of her instead of in her head, "We're going to give you a whole new image! One that's confident, secure, attractive! All the girls in the school will go crazy for you for once! Then Akane will have to see you! And when that happens, BAM." She slammed her hands against the table, causing Ryoga to jump. "You swoop in and you ask her to the dance!" Ukyo was grinning.

Ryoga stood there for a second, jaw hanging, trying to take in Ukyo's newest plan that for the life of him, he could not figure out how they would pull it off. "D-do you think that will work, Ukyo?" Ryoga asked, after a minute of dumbly staring at her.

"Sure it will! Look you're attractive enough and you are athletic, though not as much as Ranma but even Ranma admitted you to being the only person worthy enough to being your rival. If we push that energy to some sport at school. We will have to think about which one and of course," her tone changing a little, bringing back some of the earlier exaggeration and removing some of her zeal, "we will have to work on your behavior around girls in general."

"What do you mean?! I'm a gentleman at all time!"

"Yeah! A stuttering, shy, awkward gentleman! Don't you get it by now, Ryoga? Girls don't like the kind, nice best friend. They like the assertive, confident men!"

He rolled his eyes, "so you mean a jerk like Ranma?"

Ukyo ignored him. "You'll have to be desirable from afar and then when all this attention is on you, you can turn to her and say…" She took his hands in hers and gazed into his eyes. "Akane, will you go to the Cherry Blossom Festival with me?"

His eyes were as round as saucers, staring back at hers, as he nearly whispered "and what would she say?"

"You dingus!" she smacked the side of his head, "of course, she'll say yes!"

"Y-you think so?"

She turned her head and smirked, "when I'm done with you, sugar, no girl will be able to turn you down."


	2. The Transformation

**The Transformation**

Was it really just three days ago when Ukyo was sure her plan would work? She sighed, watching as Ryoga yet again failed at engaging Konatsu in a casual conversation, instead staring at the floor, twiddling his thumbs, his face flushed with a deep blush.

Of course Konatsu was a man but Ryoga didn't know that she was a he. And since he looked like a she as he often did, Ryoga did what he almost always did in front of girls, stutter, avoid her eyes, and become all around awkward.

Sighing as yet again Konatsu asked him where to get to Class 302 and Ryoga responding with a jumbled mess of confusing words with numbers thrown in for good measure, she called their training session to a halt.

"Isn't there a single girl out there you can talk to, Ryoga?" she asked exasperated.

Ryoga had just recovered from cute smile that Konatsu had sent his way in their skit. "Well, I guess there's you."

 _That_ got her annoyed not that she wasn't already annoyed.

"Ryoga think of it as training. Every girl that comes near you, I need you to start thinking of them as genderless blobs or… me." She couldn't believe she had to degrade herself to try and give the fool ideas to make her plan work. And another thing, why was she the only female successfully omitted from his stutters and nerves? "Now try again."

"Oh excuse me," said Konatsu in a laughing sing songy voice, staring up at him with demure eyes "can you please tell me how to get to room 302?"

Ryoga merely stared for a second. "Ryoga?" came Ukyo's voice, teetering on the edge of annoyance.

Slapping himself, Ryoga cried out with new reserve "I'll try! For Akane! And if I must picture every girl as genderless blobs or you, Ukyo for this plan to work, I will work my hardest! Harder than I have ever worked." He closed his eyes, "Wait! I think I can do this! Yes, imaging you is definitely helping!"

He opened his eyes and half smiled at Konatsu, just barely showing the tips of his canines.

"That's right, good Ryoga! That's perfect! That half smile is perfect!" Ukyo was grinning ear to ear.

"It's that way," he said to the fake student and tilted his head slightly to the right.

Konatsu sported a feminine blush and thanked him prettily and took a few steps away from him to procure at least a bit of closure to the performance.

"That was great, Ryoga!" Ukyo slapped him hard on his back.

He turned to her and grinned. "I did it! You were right, Ukyo. I imagined Konatsu was you and my tongue untwisted itself and I acted!"

Ukyo's grin slipped a little from her face.

But Ryoga did not notice. "Who would have thought all this time I could talk to girls!"

Ukyo rolled her eyes but her smile returned. Even though it was a little annoying that Ryoga had just proven that he saw Konatsu, a known male, as a woman before her, a known female, at least they were on their way to successfully implementing plan. But, then again she did have her pride. "Hey, watch it, jackass!" she said and smacked him once on the side of his head.

"Hey!" Ryoga grunted, "You're the one who suggested it."

"Come on!" she grabbed the sleeve of his arm and started dragging him to the door.

"Where are we going?" he asked as he blushed, noticing that Konatsu, who was no longer just another Ukyo in his eyes, was waving and smiling pleasantly at them as Ukyo dragged him out the door.

"We need to go shopping."

"Shopping? Why?" He pulled his sleeve out of her grasp and started walking beside her as she headed left once they were on the sidewalk.

"To get you clothes."

"Uh, why?"

He saw her roll her eyes, "to make you look cool, dummy."

"I thought you guys had uniforms." Ryoga suddenly started wandering to her right.

"Hey!" she grabbed his arm again, her hand quickly moving down to grab his. Ryoga only slightly blushed, still not used to being touched even if it was Ukyo, whom he saw rather genderlessly. "Don't just wander off, jackass."

They walked briskly a few more blocks until they reached a popular shopping strip. "We do have uniforms," Ukyo said abruptly, "but we need to get you other clothes for those days when we need to show you off as a little bit um… problematic to authority."

They stopped in front of a clothing shop, geared for young men. "What?" Instead of answering, she pulled Ryoga into the store.

"Hi Ukyo!" came a friendly voice behind the counter, it was a young man, tall and slim and a beautiful in appearance, with long straight black hair. His gender would have been a confusing point to Ryoga had it not been for his deep voice.

"Hi Akio!" Ukyo smiled.

"Here to buy more shirts?" He suddenly stopped, his eyes on Ryoga. "Oh, is this Ranma?"

Both Ryoga and Ukyo's eyes widened. "No!" they both shouted.

Akio took a tiny startled step back as Ukyo dragged the boy quickly to the back of the store. "Uh okay! Let me know if you need any—"

Ukyo pushed Ryoga down onto a cushioned seat in the back of the store. "Now, you wait here while I get you some clothes." She started walking away but turned back sharply, "Don't you move! I don't want to spend the next hour looking for you if you get lost."

Ryoga grumbled under his breath but stayed where she dropped him and his mind started to wander. It had been 3 days since Ukyo had hatched her newest plan and while he knew things were not going as quickly as Ukyo may have wanted them to go, he was actually pretty pleased with the results so far. He would not have ever imagined that picturing Ukyo in place of the girls in front of him would have cured him, albeit temporarily, of his crippling curse when talking to the opposite gender. He frowned. But why did it do the trick? There was nothing wrong with Ukyo, he knew she was a girl but for some reason, she didn't make him nervous... when she wasn't angry, that is. Of course, it could have easily been attributed to the fact that she hardly dressed femininely if she dressed like a girl at all. Even the guy, what's his name? Aiko was friendly with her, which meant she must shop for men's clothes often.

Either way, he was, he realized, grateful to her.

He didn't have to wait long before a large pile of clothes with slim legs made its way to where he sat.

"Uh Ukyo, you want me to try all of these on?"

She dropped the pile next to him, "Sure do, sugar." She pulled a long sleeved, collarless black sweater and handed to him, "we have to be as precise as possible if we are going to make the whole school and most especially Akane believe how suave and desirable you are." She looked up at his face, noticing a gloomy shadow threatening his features, she hastily added, "Not that you're not. It's just not that noticeable right now, you know?"

Before he could answer, she pulled a dark pair of jeans and placed it on top the sweater and pushed him into a dressing room, following him closely.

"W-what are you doing in here?" Ryoga asked her.

"Helping you dress. Knowing you, it'll take forever for you to try on all these clothes by yourself." Ukyo started to tug his yellow shirt up.

"Hey!" he cried as he pried her hands away. "I can dress myself, thanks!" And he almost roughly (but this is Ryoga we are talking about here pushing a woman so that meant with a feather touch) pushed her out of the men's dressing room.

After a few minutes, Ryoga walked out of dressing room, feeling a bit shy in his new attire. He had basically worn the same type of martial arts training clothes for the past 3 or 4 years and he had no idea how he would look in a more modern and casual attire.

Ukyo grinned, "You don't look half bad, sugar." The black sweater almost perfectly fit him, it was perhaps just a tiny big larger than him and hence hung off his trim frame in a nice but casual manner, showing off his well-built body but not sticking to it uncomfortably. The dark jeans too fit him nicely.

Ukyo looked down at his feet and noticed he was wearing only his socks and realized that she had not given him any shoes. That won't do. She turned around and spotted a pair of dark grey tennis shoes and threw it at him. "Try those on."

Once he put on his shoes, Ukyo nodded in approval and walked closer to him, placing her hand on his head. "Everything's just about perfect," she said and pulled off his black spotted yellow bandana. She ruffed his hair, not realizing that a soft blush was developing on Ryoga's cheeks. "There!" she backed up a few steps looking at the result of her efforts.

Ryoga Hibiki looked, dare she say it, handsome, alluring, attractive. Dark colors suited him really well. An almost melancholy attractiveness clung to him.

"Uh, how do I look?" Ryoga asked, shyly.

Ukyo turned him around to face the mirror "Look for yourself, sugar."

At first Ryoga's expression was one of confusion. "Wha?" Then he pointed to his own reflection, "is that me?"

Ukyo let out a laugh. "Well of course! It's your reflection!"

His brows scrunched together a little, "Why do I look like that?"

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "Obviously, you don't know much about dressing well. This is _the_ classy casual look that has been in existence since sweaters and jeans were created. It practically screams stylish if pulled off correctly. And I have to admit to my surprise that you are pulling it off, Hibiki." She grinned.

Ryoga looked back at himself in the mirror. In his eyes, he looked kind of depressed. He knew he was often depressed or downtrodden and _looked it_ when he was but now he looked, how did he say, dark and gloomy. "I look melancholy."

"It's not melancholy, it's brooding."

He raised a brow, "what's the difference?"

Ukyo rolled her eyes again. Ryoga noticed that she did that a lot around him. "You look classy, smart, and a little dark. Trust me. Girls love this look." She picked up another set of outfits and shoved him back into the dressing room.

...

He must have tried hundreds of outfits, Ryoga thought as he followed Ukyo back to her house, carrying 5 large shopping bags. She ended up picking 10 tops and 4 pairs of pants and 2 pairs of shoes that she thought would best appeal to the female study body. He was exhausted and now he knew that shopping meant wasted time, effort, and boredom since he had spent a lot of time just waiting for Ukyo to make her decision. Of course, if ever Akane wanted to go shopping, he knew he would happily oblige her.

He placed the bags on her kitchen floor and turned to her, "Uh thanks, Ukyo." Ryoga rubbed the back of his head, "I'll pay you back as soon as I get the money."

Ukyo smiled at him. "Don't worry about it, sugar. It was my plan, so I'll happily shoulder the cost," she eyed him steadily, "But you gotta to promise me that you'll put your all into this."

Ryoga nodded, "I promise, Ukyo." Suddenly he placed his fists in front of his chest, his shoulders straightening, and his voice boomed "By the end of next month, Akane will be going to the Cherry Blossom Festival with me!"


	3. Enter a New Ryoga

**Enter a New Ryoga**

Ukyo was pacing her living room, waiting. Ryoga had been scheduled to start the following Monday. They had done everything they had planned to do to prepare for his first day of school. They got him his school uniform, his "additional" clothes, worked through several possibly thousand scenarios of his talking to girls and what to say when he came across them, his stance, his walk, his smile, his hair, and on and on and on. They practiced and prepared so many times that Ukyo found that she was more exhausted than the time she had to cater to 3 large tourist bus full of old timers, who had accidentally took a wrong turn and found themselves in front of her restaurant.

"Where in the world is that jackass!" she grumbled under her breath as she continued pacing. Today, like most days she was wearing her male school uniform just so she could walk and talk with Ryoga without bringing too much attention to herself when with the lost boy.

He came running in, huffing, his hair unruly and the buttons on the dark gray school uniform not aligning with its respective slots. "Sorry, I'm" huff, huff, "late. I couldn't find your place. I," huff, "got lost."

She rolled her eyes and pulled him to her. She unbuttoned the bottom 3 buttons that were misaligned, re-buttoned them correctly, and took a comb to his hair, running her fingers through them afterward to give a purposefully unruly look. "We're going to be late," she grumbled but didn't scold him, instead grabbing his hand and started running toward the school.

"Whew! We made it!" said Ukyo, grinning. They had just missed the closing gates and were headed toward their class with all the nearly late comers or those who were merely lounging around, waiting for classes to start. She looked behind her and saw the lost boy's nervous gaze.

"Hey," she whispered, "there's no need to be nervous, okay?" She squeezed the hand she was holding but suddenly let go, realizing that she was in school grounds and she was dressed like a boy. While most of her classmates knew she was a girl, that didn't mean the whole school knew. She didn't want to start rumors that the new potential eligible bachelor of the school was gay. Plus even if she had been wearing the female uniform, she mused a second later, she didn't want there to be rumors that _she_ and Ryoga were dating.

"Follow me," she said as she placed a hand on Ryoga's shoulder, ensuring that he did not wander away and suddenly find himself in the girl's locker room.

So busy was she going through all the things she needed to remember that she nearly missed the quiet "thank you" that came from his lips.

...

"Hey Uchan!" came a voice that Ukyo immediately recognized. A large smile formed on her lips as she pushed Ryoga into their homeroom classroom. She immediately spotted the pig tailed boy cross-legged sitting on Akane's desk, which was surrounded by several other students, and walked over to them.

"Hey guys!" she said, smiling widely.

Ukyo watched as Ranma leaned back to look behind her. "Hey, who's the new guy?"

Ukyo turned to see Ryoga staring at the ceiling near the door where she left him. She rushed forward and took his arm, dragging him to the group. Immediately, she noticed the girls staring at him then smiling and giggling. The guys were silent, just staring.

"Ranchan, you can't tell me that you don't recognize your own friend."

"Huh?" Ranma scratched his head and looked back at the guy standing next to Ukyo. He did look _familiar_. "Hey aren't you that guy that hands out taiyaki on offft!"

A fist shot out and hit Ranma square in the face.

"Hey! What'd ya do that for?!" yelled Ranma, jumping off Akane's desk as the onlookers watched, eyes wide.

Ryoga stood with his face turned slightly away from Ranma, his nose just a little bit upturned.

"Wait!" Ranma gazed at the guy, his eyes narrowing, "Pig-boy?!"

"What? Ryoga?" came Akane's voice.

Ryoga's eyes widened as he slowly turned to face her. He hadn't seen her there. "A-Akane." There was a sharp pinch on his thigh. "Uh, hi Akane," he said, finishing the greeting off smoothly.

Just as Akane was about to respond, Ranma's foot came out of nowhere, about to strike Ryoga's jaw when a large spatula diverted his attempt.

"What'd you do that for?!" he yelled, turning to Ukyo.

Ukyo was smiling. "No fighting in class, Ranchan."

"Uh, right." He turned to Ryoga, grinning, "What are you doing here anyway, P-chan?"

 _Grr_. Pinch. "Well if you have to know Ranma, I'm here to study."

"You? Study?" Ranma burst out into laughter. Ryoga's hands formed into fists, the veins on his arms twitching when he felt yet again another pinch on his leg.

Ryoga shrugged, seeing Ukyo smile approvingly from the corner of his eyes and slowly walked to an empty desk where he dropped the bag that he had carefully placed across his shoulder to make it look like it was carelessly done.

Ranma's mouth was wide open and Akane too was watching Ryoga as if she had never seen him before in her life.

"Not polite to stare, Ranma honey," said Ukyo as she grinned, moving toward the desk right in front of Ryoga's.

"Teacher's coming!" said a boy that Ryoga surmised was the male class president and the students stood as a short woman with glasses, who looked to be about 50, entered the room.

"Good Morning class," she said with a voice deep for a woman's.

"Good Morning!" rang the class in response.

"Oh good, I see our new student is already here," she said, indicating to Ryoga. "If you could come up here and introduce yourself, young man."

Ryoga stood and felt his legs trembling.

"Remember what we practiced!" hissed Ukyo as he passed her and he nodded almost imperceptibly back.

 _Right_ , his inner voice said. _Remember, a class full of genderless blots, no wait of blobs, no of genderful blots. Wait no!_ He felt his eyes widen as he found himself only a few steps away from the front of the class. _Gender blobs, gender blots. Genderless—_. He found himself standing in front of the class, the eyes of 20+ students staring back at him. A bead of sweat started to form at his temple. _I can't fail this! If I fail this then I fail at all chances with being with Akane._

"Ryoga?" came the teacher's voice.

 _Right. Blobs, no, Ukyos!_ His voice came out the deep, stable and mature tone that he and Ukyo had worked on in the past 5 days. "My name is Ryoga Hibiki. I've started here after a long absence from school. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He bowed slightly, only his neck and upper shoulders falling a few inches before he stood back up.

"Fantastic, dear!" said the teacher, enthusiastically patting Ryoga on the back. "If you guys have any questions for Ryoga, don't hesitate to go up to him and chat a bit. Eimi, if you could be so kind as to show Ryoga around the school today." A Ukyo with large dark purple hair in the front of the class nodded.

 _She must be the female president,_ Ryoga noted, remembering what Ukyo had told her about the roles of the class presidents.

Ryoga made his way back to his seat but not without first noticing an even more incredulous look coming from pig-tailed boy. Ryoga felt an involuntary tug of his lips.

...

Ukyo had made it so that on their first day, Ryoga would not be anywhere without her at least 3 feet within his radius. Things were, surprisingly for once, going smoothly. Everyone was talking about the new boy. Ukyo herself had heard several comments, indicating that their plan was working.

"Who's that new guy? He's so dreamy!"

"Have you seen the new kid? He's so pensive! I've never seen someone look so sad and dark and he's so tall!"

"The new guy has such soulful eyes! I wonder if he has a girlfriend?"

Ryoga had, for once, been doing exactly what they had spent the previous days practicing. He was mostly quiet, stoic, distant but nice when spoken to. He kept his words short but polite. From afar, he looked like a guy that was bothered by nothing.

But of course, Ukyo knew this was not true. The reason she kept a 3ft radius around him was so that she could swoop in as soon as she saw his legs tremble or his eyes widen and pinch him, albeit a little roughly, on his thigh. She was sure there would be some bruising by the end of the day.

Ukyo had been heading over to the gym, passing two boys deep in conversation.

"I heard he beat some guy into a pulp at his old school and that's why he was transferred here. The guy he beat up is still in a coma." Ukyo rolled her eyes, seriously when did the crazy rumors start. Then she stopped in her tracks, oh no, if these types of crazy rumors were going around school that meant only one thing, there would be challenges. Every time a new tough guy entered the school, the school crazies, jocks, bad boys, wrestling team, kendo team, etc. were either going to jump him or issue a challenge one by one. It was almost tradition.

Not that she was worried about Ryoga. She knew he was a good fighter and could handle the guys at her school really well but they had never gone over scenarios like these in their training. What if he forgot himself while fighting and made a fool out of himself or what if he brought down the whole school with his goliath strength?

Ukyo started running, sudden realization dawning on her. _Oh no, the gym!_


	4. Why's Everyone Talkin' About the New Kid

**Writer's Notes** : Hey guys, so I didn't realize that fanfiction removes double spaces between paragraphs, which is what I used to separate scenarios. I've re-uploaded those chapters that needed the fix.

Also, I'm sorry that the romance between Ukyo and Ryoga is a little slow. I never imagined them to be walking down the road and suddenly be hit by their love for each other. Instead, I always saw it as a slow process. A smile here, a nice gesture there, etc. etc. but I promise that each chapter from this one and on, there will be something that indicates their growing feelings for each other. Thanks!

…

 **Why's everyone talkin' about the New Kid?**

Ukyo ran as fast as she could through the halls, down the stairs, pass the dressing rooms and barely halted in front of the doorway into the gym. The gym doors were already open and she could see her class standing in clusters, all their faces peering in one direction. Ukyo pushed through the crowds, trying hard to see what they were all staring at. She stopped in front of her classmates and found herself next to Ranma and Akane. Her eyes followed their gazes and fell on what she could only describe as chaos.

Ryoga was in the middle of a student body battle where several dozen guys were fighting him at once from all directions. About 20 or so bruised or unconscious students lay scattered around the feet of the onlookers.

"What's happening?" she asked Akane.

"Oh hi, Ukyo," said Akane, turning to her. "All these guys just jumped Ryoga as soon as he got out of the changing room and they've been at this for the past 10 minutes." She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I don't know why this happens every time a new guy enters the school."

"Not every new guy, Akane," said Ranma, his eyes not leaving Ryoga, who had knocked down another 4 opponents with one move. "Just the ones the schools deem strong. Though I don't know how pig-face there got picked."

Ukyo saw Akane roll her eyes again. "You know he's strong, Ranma. He's the only one you ever want to train with."

"Yeah, whatever." But Ukyo noticed he said nothing more.

She turned her gaze back to Ryoga's fight. Hadn't there been about 30 guys still fighting him? In only the few minutes she was talking with Akane and Ranma, he was now down to 6.

Her brows bunched up as she watched how effortlessly he blocked and moved. Just one punch or one half-moon kick and guys larger than him, obviously from the wrestling team, were sprawled on the ground. Ukyo then realized that she had never actually watched Ryoga fight before.

It was strange. Just a few minutes ago she had been worried, running at full speed to try and reach him to make sure he didn't blow his image or wreck the whole school. Instead she found herself watching aptly, glued to the spot, a little astonished at the side of Ryoga she barely knew existed. He was all grace and form. He wasn't as fast as Ranma but he barely needed to move as he met all attacks with faultless blocks. What's more, Ukyo noted was that his attacks were tempered. He swept his attackers to the floor but the damage to their bodies were minimal. His control was startling. No wonder Ranma considered him a rival.

"That jerk!" Ranma suddenly growled and both she and Akane turned to face him. "Why does he get to train while I'm standing here watching from the sidelines."

"You can't be serious, Ranma." Akane rolled her eyes. "How can you be jealous of poor Ryoga? He just started school and was ganged up on by a bunch of idiots. Anyways, you fight some of those guys almost every morning."

"Yeah but they don't all attack me at once. That would be more challenging. Urg I wish I could go in there and fight too but I don't want to be grouped with those idiots," he grumbled.

Ukyo smirked.

Turning back, she noticed that Ryoga had obviously won. He was standing in the middle of gym, his arms down to his side. _Please please don't do anything stupid like letting out a maniacal laughter,_ Ukyo thought but Ryoga merely looked down at where he flung his last opponent and extended his hand, not saying a word.

The guy on the floor, Ukyo recognized as the captain of the Judo team, stared at it before nodding and took Ryoga's outstretched hand. She was, Ukyo noted, surprised. She hadn't expected such a cavalier gesture from Ryoga.

"What is he doing?" came Ranma's voice, running into her thoughts.

"That's Ryoga for you," Ukyo responded, just now realizing it herself, "A gentleman through and through."

"Hey! What's happening here?" came a deep voice a few students behind where Ukyo and her friends stood. The gym teacher was suddenly next to her, a big man with a slight pot belly, as he looked at Ryoga, the judo captain, and the throng of guys pulling themselves off the floor.

The judo captain looked at Ryoga for a moment and walked forward. "Nothing is happening, Coach. We were just sparing with uh," he looked back at Ryoga, who promptly walked forward.

"Ryoga."

"Ryoga huh?" the captain looked at the retreating guys, some were limping but most were fine. "You do all this?"

"Uh..." Ukyo felt sweat forming on her temples.

Before Ryoga could answer, a large beefy hand smacked him on the back and he staggered forward a few steps. "I think you should join the judo team, son," said the coach, grinning ear to ear. "You look a little small," indeed he was a few sizes smaller than the judo captain, "but I can see that you're packed full of power." He slapped Ryoga's stomach, laughing as Ryoga hunched over a tiny bit.

"Uh, thank you."

"After school, I want you here in this gym and we'll see what you're made out of, kid." The coach separated himself from Ryoga and turned to look at the students. "Alright, enough staring. Let's start with a couple of stretches," he said and proceeded to start their gym lessons.

Ukyo breathed out a relieved sigh and walked up next to Ryoga. "Ryoga," she said softly, "that was good!"

Ryoga smiled at her. She realized it was his real smile not the half grin they had agreed would be the one he used at school; she mentally noticed she liked this one much better.

"Yeah, they came out of nowhere." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I wasn't sure what to do at first since we didn't plan for this but it turned out alright."

"Of course it did! Not only that, it looks like we got you into a team and on your first day too!"

"Huh? Oh! The Judo team? Yeah, it looks like it." He smiled again. "Hey, Ukyo?"

"Yeah?" She wasn't facing him, rather the instructor who had proceeded to lead the class in a series of leg stretches. She bent down, her legs shoulder length apart and knees stiff as her fingers touched the floor.

Ryoga's eyes widened a bit and he coughed, turning away from Ukyo's bent form. For gym, she had worn her female gym uniform and unfortunately for Ryoga, the clothes fitted her well and more unfortunately for him, the shorts, being true to its name, were very short.

"Pst! Stretch, Ryoga!" He looked back to see Ukyo staring at him from between her legs, her hands pressed firmly on the floor and her _gulp_ backside lifted to the sky.

"Uh right!" Ryoga bent down, stretching until this hands touched the floor between his feet. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and a familiar but unfamiliar (in terms of Ukyo) feeling left him. _Phew,_ _what was that?_

…

By lunch time, it was all over the school. The new guy's name was Ryoga. The new guy was a hottie. The new guy had won in a fight against some of Furinkan High's strongest. The new guy was pensive. The new guy was dreamy. The new guy was the school's newest hottie.

Ukyo had found herself walking alone back to their homeroom classroom. She had been with Ryoga most of the day but Eimi, the female class president, had stepped in between her and Ryoga, claiming her duty to take him around the school to show him the facilities during lunch.

Ryoga had taken it well, surprising Ukyo once again. He had nodded and given Eimi a half smile, the tips of his canines pointing out and Eimi had almost swooned, or would have had she been one of the more ridiculous girls in Furinkan. She instead gave him a sultry look and linked her hands around his arm and without even a look in Ukyo's direction, led him away from her.

Ukyo had rolled her eyes and picked up her book bag and headed back to the homeroom class where she had planned to have lunch with Ranma and Akane.

"Hey Ukyo!" Ranma called out as soon as he saw her walk through the door.

Ukyo smiled at him, sliding a chair next to his desk. She nodded at Akane, who was sitting on his other side.

Ukyo was unpacking her lunch when Ranma asked her "Hey Ucchan, what's up with Ryoga?"

"Ranma!" Akane scolded, "She hasn't even started eating yet."

He ignored her. "So, you've been with him all day. You're the only one who can tell us anything."

"Yeah, Ukyo," said Akane, obviously having forgotten what she said a second ago. "What is up with, Ryoga? I've never seen him act like this before."

Ukyo shrugged, knowing exactly what Akane meant but now it was her turn to play her part.

"Come on, Ucchan! The Ryoga I know is not like this. He's actually popular! Ryoga!" Ranma stuffed a rice ball into his mouth but continued talking, "I mean girls were calling him 'dreamy'." He made a face.

"Ranma!" Akane yelled, "Close your mouth when you're eating!"

"Huh?" he looked at Akane. There was a piece of rice on her cheek, one he had spit out while talking. He reached over casually and flicked it off. "Oh sorry."

Ukyo saw the exchange and felt her heart clench. Ranma rarely ever touched Akane even if it was a flick…

But she had a part to play. "There's nothing different about Ryoga, Ranma honey. I think this was just a side of him we never saw."

"Uh huh, yeah okay. Then why is he here in school?"

She had placed a piece of squid okonomiyaki into her mouth. She chewed for a minute and swallowed. "He came to me last week saying that his parents had registered him into this school and require that he graduate with us."

"That's good!" said Akane, "I was always worried if Ryoga would get his required education."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "What's education gonna do for that idiot? He can't even figure out his right from his left. Anyways, that don't explain why he's actin' all funny!"

"He's probably just nervous, right Ukyo?"

Ukyo smiled, "I don't know, Akane. I think this is a side of Ryoga that we probably didn't see because we never seen him a situation like this, you know?"

Akane gazed at her face thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

"Well I don't like it!" exclaimed Ranma, suddenly standing up. "Something strange is going on here."

Just then, Ukyo heard a sultry feminine giggle come from behind her. She turned and saw Ryoga walking in with Eimi still clutching his arm. She expected a googly eyed expression on his face and was almost startled when only a polite, slightly amused countenance was all she saw.

"Ryoga," Eimi was saying, her voice soft. "I hadn't realized you were so funny."

Ukyo felt her eyes roll of their own volition.

"Hey Ryoga!" Ranma yelled, "Get over here, will ya."

Ryoga walked over to where they sat, Eimi still clinging to his arm. He turned to Ranma and smirked. "Hey Ranma."

He then turned to Akane and Ukyo feel the smooth, velvetiness of his voice and the gravity of his gaze. "Hey Akane."

"Hey, you jerk! Now tell me, what are you really doing here?"

Ryoga pulled out a seat for himself and Eimi. "Like I said earlier, Ranma, I'm here to study. My parents gave me no option."

"I think that's great, Ryoga!" said Akane beaming. Ryoga turned to her and Ukyo noticed his pupil's expanding. The start of a love sick grin started to form on his face when Ukyo coughed and all eyes turned to her.

"Sorry," she pointed to her throat, "got a piece of cabbage in my throat." She patted her chest and stood. "Hey Ryoga, come with me to get a drink?"

"Oh I'll go too," said Eimi standing as Ryoga stood. Ukyo noticed Ryoga's eyes widening slightly.

"Oh nonsense, Eimi!" said Ukyo, pushing her back down. "You haven't even started lunch yet. Ryoga and I will get your drink. What do you want? Soda it is!" And before Eimi could answer, Ukyo was pushing Ryoga out the door.

"Whew!" she said when they stopped in front of the vending machine.

"Thanks, Ukyo," said Ryoga shyly. "I almost blew it there with Akane."

Ukyo looked at him for a second. For once, she wasn't angry. She had gotten him out of there on time and more than that, he had done everything nearly perfectly so far today. "Don't worry about it, sugar. We got you out of there before any harm could be done." She patted him on the shoulder and Ryoga smiled at her, again his genuine rather than practiced smile.

She lowered her voice a bit as she watched Ryoga put in a 100 yen coin into the vending machine, "so it looks like our plan is working. You already got Eimi interested in you."

Ryoga blushed and Ukyo idly thought that that was the first time she had seen him do that all day.

"Oh, well I don't think she actually likes me," he said.

She ignored that. Ryoga selected a clear soda. "How was it talking to her without me there? From the looks of it, you didn't screw it up."

He put in another 100 yen coin and shrugged. "Every time I looked at her, I imagined you. It was easy then, it felt just like one of our training sessions. I acted."

"Huh." Ukyo fished into her pocket to pull out some money to put into the vending machine when a can of green tea was placed in front of her face. He had already purchased it for her. "Oh, uh how'd you know I was going to pick green tea?" she asked as she took the can from him.

He shrugged as he turned to walk back to the classroom. "You always pick green tea."

Ukyo found herself rooted to the spot as she watched his retreating back. Why was she suddenly so surprised? No, that wasn't right. She suddenly felt… _odd._ She watched as hewas about to make a turn at the corner but stopped. Instead he turned back to her, his eyes raised a little, surprised that she hadn't followed him.

"Come on, Ukyo" he called out, that genuine, slightly goofy smile back on his face. He held up his hands, each hand was holding a can of soda.

Ukyo suddenly shook her head and started walking. The odd feeling started to slowly retreat from her body but her mind was still a few steps behind her as she reached his side. And it only had one thing to say:

 _What the hell was that?_


	5. The Dozen Faces of Ukyo

**The Dozen Faces of Ukyo**

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully. Ukyo had stuck near Ryoga most of the time but soon realized that she was not needed; Ryoga was handling himself really well. The only time anything threatened the façade was when Akane would talk to him out of the blue but thankfully, his contact with her on that day was minimal.

After classes, Ukyo followed Ryoga to the gym where he tried out and immediately made it into the Judo team. The coach had been impressed, especially since Ryoga barely had to put much effort into his demonstration. His martial arts lifestyle had made it easy for him to take up the forms and styles of Furinkan High's Judo team.

What struck Ukyo the most when waiting for him on the sidelines of the gym was how well their plan was working when she spotted several female students hanging out on the sidelines watching Ryoga perform. Most of them were in pairs or in trios, heads close together, shooting him furtive glances and giggling.

When he was finished, she watched as a few girls ran up to him to hand him a towel. Ryoga looked flustered but took the one closest to him and thanked her. Ukyo watched as he looked up and spotted her from the crowd, immediately walking over to her after another half bow and thank you to the girl who handed him a towel.

Ukyo couldn't help by smile, how was this guy always so polite?

"Hey, sugar," she said once he was near, "Ready to head out?" She noted that some of the girls were staring at her as they made their way out of the gym but she was back in her male uniform so didn't think anything of it.

"It's kind of hard to spot you sometimes," said Ryoga once they left the school grounds, laughter in his voice. "Since I'm imagining all the other girls as you."

Ukyo laughed. "Then how did you spot me?"

Ryoga shook his head. "I don't know. I can kinda uh, sense you."

Ukyo raised a brow as they crossed the street. "Sense me?"

"Yeah, you know. I don't know. It's kind of warm, like sun rays or a heat from a ceramic teapot."

Ukyo looked at him and Ryoga blush. "I-I mean that's what I sense when you're near."

"Oh," responded Ukyo, finding herself unexpectedly pleased by his statement.

"So how do you think the plan is going?" Ryoga asked her. They were nearing Ucchan's, Ukyo's Okonomiyaki restaurant.

"It's going really well. Akane and Ranma thought you were acting a little strange but I think Akane is starting to accept that this is a side of you she's never seen." In fact, thought Ukyo, she remembered actually seeing Akane glance at Ryoga a number of times during the day. Her face was mostly confused but once or twice, she was sure she saw a look of perhaps girlish interest in her expression. Of course, she wouldn't tell Ryoga that right away. If she did, she was sure he's break the front and immediately ask her to marry him or something equally as extreme. Ukyo internally rolled her eyes.

"You know" she said as they walked into Ucchan's and waved at Konatsu, "I actually think this plan is going to work this time. We just need to find a way for you to be near Akane a lot, maybe even after school hours."

"A-after s-school?" Ukyo turned to look at Ryoga, whose eyes were wide and a ridiculous grin was printed on his face.

"Cut that out, will ya!" Now that they were out of school, it was obviously that Ryoga retreated back to his normal self. Ukyo rubbed her temples. "Ugh, we've got to do something about that."

"A-about what?"

"Your love sickness! You almost did that when Akane talked to you today. How are we ever going to get you two to be alone together during and after school if you keep doing that?"

Ryoga frowned and stared at the floor and lamented once again his awkward and shy nature.

"Ugh! Stop that! There's nothing wrong with you," she suddenly stated, realizing that she genuinely meant it. "We just need Akane to look long enough to want to be around you more."

Ryoga sighed. "How are we going to do that?"

"You just got to do as you're doing now, Ryoga. Then we need to find a way to get you to spend more time with her without it being obvious and the way that I see it, the more you're with her, the more she's watching you and the more she becomes interested."

She started heading up the stairs to her apartment, "When I figure out how to do that, I'll let you know. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? I've got to prep for the dinner rush."

"Uh, Ukyo?"

She stopped only a few steps from the top and turned to him.

He was standing in the middle of her restaurant, his thumbs twiddling together, his gaze on the floor, and a soft blush on his cheeks. "Can you uh… help me get to my house?"

\--ssssssss--

The following few days, nothing had changed much for Ukyo and Ryoga. They went to classes, talked with Ranma and Akane, who were either always with their respective friends or together, Ryoga went to judo, then they went to Ukyo's to chat about the progress of their plans, and Ukyo took him home. The only thing that seemed to change was that girls, who were not Akane, kept putting themselves in Ryoga's way.

"Oh, sorry Ryoga!" said a girl, bumping into his side lightly and giggling profusely with her friends.

Ryoga gave his half grin and nodded to her, his ever brooding and dark characteristic having been finally perfected now that he had a handle on his awkwardness and nerves.

He had been heading over to the school library as he had an empty period with nothing to do and thought he could waste time by reading up on some martial arts technique manuals he had procured from his travels.

Someone else suddenly bumped up against him. He looked, another girl, well to his eyes, another Ukyo. She was smaller than the real Ukyo and her hair was short.

"I'm sorry!" said the small girl, bowing deeply. He recognized her as a freshman he had seen once or twice, watching him afterschool during his judo practices. She seemed genuinely sorry for bumping into him unlike the previous girls before her.

"It's alright," he said and readjusted the backpack strap on his shoulder. He smiled at her.

The girl blushed, her expression shy. Ryoga stopped walking for a second. While he knew he wasn't actually looking at the real Ukyo, the face he was looking at was Ukyo's and she was sporting a pretty little blush and it struck him as odd. She looked quite cute.

Ryoga felt himself starting to blush. I need to stop picturing all these Ukyos, he said in his head as he excused himself from the girl, after repeating that he didn't mind that she bumped into him. It wasn't the first time, he realized, that something like this happened. His imagining of Ukyos everywhere was starting to get to him and in all honestly, was starting to scare him.

He turned a corner. A large group of girls were walking his way; he noticed cards and small packages in their hands. They suddenly spotted him. Ryoga's eyes widened. About a dozen Ukyos were running toward him, trying to push the Ukyos on the left or the right out of their way in their haste.

"Move it! He's mine!"

"No! You move! I'm going to give him mine first."

"Girls, I saw him first!"

Ryoga's eyes widened even more as the group gathered speed. Ryoga turned quickly, almost losing his footing and began to run as the dozen Ukyos chased him, his bag swinging wildly from his shoulder.

He ran pass classrooms, turned corners, down the stairs, up the stairs but somehow could not shake them off.

At one point, he found himself running pass Akane and Ranma.

"Ryoga?" Akane yelled but he was running too quickly to turn back to answer her.

He spotted it. If he could just turn the next corner, he would be near the gym and he could lose the throng in the men's dressing room. But just as his body was making the turn, he slammed right into something and landed on his bottom.

"Hey!" came a voice he recognized all too well as it was the faces of the real owner of that voice were chasing him.

"Ukyo!" he said jumping up, his eyes wide and frantic.

"Ryoga?" Today she was wearing the girl's uniform and that made Ryoga hesitate. He couldn't use the uniform as a definite way of distinguishing the real from the fake. "Forgive me!" he said and pulled her up off the ground and hugged her.

Ukyo froze and a second later, her giant spatula came down on Ryoga's head.

"I just needed to make sure!" he yelled.

"What are you talking about?!"

He grabbed her hand, his other hand clutching his book bag and began to run.

"Why are you running, jackass?!" cried a surprised Ukyo, trying to keep up with Ryoga's steps. Just then she heard cacophony of footsteps and voices catching up to them.

"What is that?" She heard Ryoga's name being called and sounds of girls yelling and pushing each other.

Ukyo's eyes widened. "Are they after you?" she asked and the only response she got was a Ryoga's increase in speed.

"Wait. Wait, wait! Ryoga!" she yelled, yanking hard to pull Ryoga to a stop.

"What?"

She jerked her head to the left, urging him to be quiet and she pulled Ryoga through a door, quickly shutting it behind just as the horde of teenage girls passed them.

Letting out a huge breath of relief, Ryoga sagged against the wall of what he realized was the school's utility closet.

"Why were they chasing you?" the real Ukyo asked once she caught her breath.

Ryoga shook his head. "I don't know."

It was then that Ukyo had some idea. She had heard a bunch of girls the previous day saying that they were going to confess their love to Ryoga and request that he be their boyfriend. She told him what she knew and then groaning, sat down on box. Perhaps one part of their plan was working a little too well.

For a few minutes, there was just silence between them, each lost to their own thoughts. Then all of a sudden, Ryoga started to laugh. It was a rich, vivid laugh. At first it was silent, merely shaking his frame but then started gathering strength and it was loud, open, and full. Ukyo was confused but this laugh, one she had never actually heard before, eventually forced a small smile on her face.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked, all of a sudden intensely curious as to what thought produced such a deeply positive outburst.

Ryoga's laughter died down and he grinned at her. "It was just that I was imaging those girls with your face and well the thought of a dozen of you wanting to give me love letters was just so unbelievable!" And then he started laughing again.

Ukyo moved to stand, glaring at him. "I don't see what's so funny, Hibiki."

Ryoga's hand gently grasped onto her wrist. She looked at it then turned back to look at his face, his eyes were tearing up. "F-forgive me," he said, trying to speak through the laughter.

Despite herself, Ukyo found herself grinning. "You, idiot. I guess it is kind of funny when you think about it like that."

Ryoga shook his head and silence reigned again for a short while. "Wow, I can't believe all those girls wanted to give me love letters. Me!"

Ukyo smirked, "Yeah well, I think maybe our plan is working too well in that aspect."

His eyes glazed over and he sighed. "Too bad all I ever see is you, Ukyo. If I hadn't, then maybe I could have fallen in love with one of those girls and—." A large object suddenly hit him on the head, sending to the ground.

Ukyo had hit him with her spatula. "You, jackass!" she grumbled and left the utility closet without him.


	6. Something Surprising This Way Comes

**Something Surprising This Way Comes**

They still needed something to get the second part of their plan in action: get Akane to spend more time with Ryoga without making it seem too obvious. The last part became ever more crucial since Ranma was already suspicious and hence, had been sticking to Ryoga like glue whenever he had the chance.

They were often spotted together almost as much as Ukyo was with Ryoga. No one said much about it, thinking that they were friends. Unfortunately, however other than any one on ones with Akane, Ryoga found being alone with Ranma to be the hardest at keeping his actual self at bay. He found his palms always itching around the pig-tailed boy, his eagerness to punch him barely on the surface whenever the other party made a stupid remark or taunted him.

Ukyo had tried at first to be near him as much as possible but found that it was harder to do as the days went by. She had homework, classes, and had to do stuff for the restaurant like advertising or checking her ledger and pinching Ryoga every time Ranma got within 10ft of him was turning into a full time job.

Ukyo frown, lost in thought in the middle of their calculus class, her pen just hovering over the problem the teacher had asked them to solve. She wasn't paying attention. Instead she was half watching Ranma flick a piece of paper folded into a triangle across his desk and half thinking how for some reason, all the tricks she and Ryoga had practiced on just barely worked when it came to Ranma and Akane. Thinking a bit more on it though, she realized it shouldn't have surprised her.

She watched as Ranma placed a finger on one of the triangle's points and turned slightly to face Ryoga, who sat diagonally in front of him to the right and aimed. He flicked the triangle and it hit the back of Ryoga's head. Ukyo's eye brow rose as she watched, fascinated by the immediate tensing of Ryoga's body and the clenching of his fists. Ryoga turned back sharply to look at Ranma but Ranma was back to facing the front of the class, his expression returning to the bored look he had sported just moments ago.

Ukyo turned back in her seat to face the teacher, a stern looking young woman, just as she called out, "Mr. Hibiki, if you could please demonstrate the solution to the problem up on the board."

 _Uh oh!_ Ukyo knew Ryoga hadn't done the problem yet as his page to the problem [limt-infinity (ln(3t)/t2)] was still blank. She felt uncomfortable for him. If he didn't get the problem right or didn't know how to do the problem, will this blow his new cover? She hadn't even thought of how to actually handle academics and Ryoga hadn't been in school for 2 or so years! Suddenly she realized too that she had never actually seen Ryoga study. _Oh no! He'll look like an idiot!_

"Ah well done, Mr. Hibiki."

 _Huh?_ Ukyo looked up sharply to see Ryoga step away from the black board, his work and answer clearly visible in white chalk. [Solution = 0]. Ukyo looked down at her own work and her brows scrunched together. _How'd he get that?_

"If you could care to explain, Mr. Hibiki, how you arrived at your answer?"

"Uh, sure."

 _Oh no! Is this it? He's going to blow his cover!_

Ryoga pointed to the board. "The limit of the equation, as it stands, leads to a nonsolution where both denominator and numerator are going to infinity. However, this particular equation allows for the derivative of both sections because of the result I explained. This is called L'Hospital's Rule. Deriving the upper and bottom formulas lead to, once simplified, [1/2t2] and then the limit of this as t goes to infinity is zero."

"Well done, Mr. Hibiki. You certainly know your numbers. Considering that we hadn't even covered L'Hospital's Rule yet, I must say that I am impressed."

Ukyo watched as Ryoga gave the teacher a small smile and headed back to his desk. It was then that she noticed that her heart had been beating wildly out of nervousness. _What just happened? How did Ryoga know how to do the problem and explain it so well?_ She turned back slightly for a quick look at Ranma and Akane's faces and saw the expression she assumed was on her own. Their eyes were wide and their jaws were hanging open.

\--ssssssss--

"Hey, sugar, care to explain what happened in Sato's class?" said Ukyo as she walked up to Ryoga as soon as she spotted him in the library.

"Huh?" Ryoga looked up from his book. "Oh, Ukyo. Hey, sit here for a second and listen to this:

It's enviable.

The gracefulness of

The cat's love.

Ukyo's eyes met his in confusion and Ryoga blushed, realizing that she may thought he had read her a love poem, and let out a soft laugh.

"It's by Ochi Etsujin," Ryoga explained. He scratched his head. "It kind of reminds me of Ranma but in the wrong way." He laughed again, "The poem is supposed to reveal a man's lingering mind but when Ranma is near a cat, his mind just stops. I'm not very good at poems but—"

Ukyo's eyes widened in surprise. The boy was well read.

"How—" but she couldn't finish her question.

Ryoga looked up, "hmm? Oh." He put down his book, suddenly looking shy. "Well no one knows this but, uh, I uh…" and proceeded to explain to her an incredulous situation.

"You what??" She scratched her head, she just couldn't believe that Ryoga Mr. constantly lost, Mr. gullible and naive, Mr. head over heals gaga googoo had actually been part of a prestigious boys program growing up. "But you went to school with Ranchan and I know that he's not the brightest star in the sky."

Ryoga shot her a shy grin, "We only went to school together for a year and while I was just about to push ahead, Ranma and I started to develop a rivalry." He shrugged, "I had never planned to be anything but a martial artist anyways so after Ranma left, I skipped a few grades so that my parents would let me go after him..."

"You graduated early? So that explains why you're not in school now." She was still looking at him with a funny expression, "Sorry if I'm a little baffled here, honey but you just don't strike me as that kind of guy even after that display."

He shrugged again, still looking sheepish. "It's not like I'm a genius or anything," he said quietly. "It's just that when I was born, my mom worried that I wouldn't get an education due to the Habiki family's problem of getting lost so she got me tutors and accelerated my education at an early age."

"Then how is it that Ranma almost always beats you? I mean, he's not he brightest bulb like I said."

Ryoga blushed a deep red.

Then her mind conjured up images of every time Ryoga had fought Ranma. Every single time without fail, he had been angry. "Of course," she said, more to herself than him, "those emotions of yours." She shook her head, if there was one thing the lost boy had plenty of it was emotions, unstable emotions to be exact. Now this partially explained his awkwardness. A naïve awkward boy growing up with classmates years older than him. He hadn't had a chance at being normal.

Ukyo stood up abruptly, a genius idea coming into her head. "Ryoga! We could use this to our advantage!"

\--ssssssss--

 **Writer's Notes** : So I think this chapter might have surprised you guys as much as it surprised me. But take a moment and kind of think about it. Ryoga was never dumb; in fact, the story had always portrayed him to be a deeply thoughtful boy, with loads of anxieties and profound emotions, which is often correlative characteristics many smart people display. Plus, Ryoga was self-taught in martial arts unlike Ranma and he is almost as good as the latter! Personally, I think this was just another hint that our awkward black pig was smarter than everyone possibly thought he'd be! And like he said, he's not a genius, he's just smart so please don't let this change your perception of the Ryoga I depict here!


	7. How Do I Love Thee

**How do I love thee?**

Now, while Ukyo and Akane were rivals to Ranma's love, they were in fact as close to being friends as any rivals could be. They spent a lot of time together in school and Akane often accompanied Ranma to eat at Ucchan's, which meant they saw a lot of each other. And while neither Ukyo nor Akane have explicitly displayed their friendship, they knew a great deal about the ongoings of each other's lives. And this was how Ukyo knew that Akane had been having trouble with her English literature course, which every high school junior was mandated to take.

Thus hatched part 2 of Ukyo's plan.

It was really quite easy for Ukyo to plant the idea in Akane's head to ask Ryoga for help in preparing for a rather grueling paper on the poetry of the English Victorian Era. The prompt could not have been timelier or perfect since Ukyo was sure that poetry was something Akane's tender disposition responded well to.

So when Akane had asked Ryoga for assistance, which he promptly accepted though only after a little bit of stuttering and a subsequent back slap from Ukyo, Ukyo found herself walking home alone for the first time in a week.

The walk from school to Ucchan didn't take more than 15 minutes but Ukyo found herself rather bored as she started to make her way to her okonomiyaki restaurant. She fiddled with the strap that held up her spatula and stared up at the sky then she turned her head to watch a stray cat walk into an empty alley. She watched young servers passing out samples outside of coffee shops and saw a child throw a rice crackers on the floor and watched as the pidgeons pecked at it.

Why was she so bored? Ukyo wondered to herself. She wasn't the type of person who was prone to boredom. She always had too many things to do: school, her restaurant, Ranma to even think about being bored. The walk home was generally the only time she had to herself outside of the hectic busyness that was her life and she had treasured it. But now, after only a week of walking to Ucchan's with Ryoga, she felt oddly lonely.

"That jackass," she mumbled under her breath but then started to smile to herself as she remembered how Ryoga had gotten lost in the teacher's lounge earlier that day. She had been idly walking by, on her way to the homeroom class when she had spotted him, an impossibly straight form behind the couch, wearing a lamp skirt on his head. She had no idea how she knew it was him and came to the conclusion that no one else but Ryoga could have ever gotten himself lost and in such a situation. So she had sighed and dropped to the floor and slowly crawled her way to him, tugging on his uniform pants to indicate her presence. When he saw her, his eyes had looked as though they were about to pop out of their sockets. She knew exactly when it had registered in his mind that the person tugging on his pants was hur and that she was there to save him because his whole body had sagged with relief.

Ukyo remembered having felt kind of touched by his absolute trust in her.

They had gotten out of there successfully, having not been caught and then she had yelled at him as she dragged him back to the classroom for lunch. _Oh well, at least that jackass is pushing ahead with our plans._

Ukyo's mind cleared and she found herself standing in front of Ucchan's and to her unexpected (redundant, I know) surprise, so were Ryoga and Akane.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked them, her tone harsher than she had expected.

"Oh hi, Ukyo!" Akane beamed. "Ryoga suggested we study at Ucchan's so that we can also have something to eat."

Ukyo gave Ryoga a pointed glare, noticing how Ryoga was avoiding her gaze. "Did he now?" She pushed through the door, "Well you better come in then." Then as an afterthought asked, "Where's Ranchan?"

Akane huffed, "Shampoo stopped by so I believe he's eating with her." Akane slammed her book down on the counter and sat down but when she turned to face Ukyo, who was behind the grill, her smile had returned. Ryoga sat down next to her.

"You know Ukyo, since Ryoga and I will be studying here, we can help you refresh the course as you work. We can read it to you."

"I don't really need the help but thanks, Akane," Ukyo replied sending her a smile. "What'll you be having?"

"Oh um, I'll have the shrimp okonomiyaki."

Akane turned to Ryoga, who was quietly sitting and watching as Ukyo gathered the ingredients. "And what are you going to have, Ryoga?"

"Squid and peppers," Ryoga and Ukyo replied at the same time.

Akane laughed her eyes sharp as she watched light blushes form on both set of cheeks. "You must come here a lot, Ryoga."

"Oh hahahaha." Ryoga's hand went to the back of his neck. "We're just friends, Akana. Hahahaha, I don't come here that often, just sometimes, you know, 'cause we're friends. Just friends. Hahahaha. You know violent girls aren't really my type. Hahaha."

The tip of the spatula Ukyo had been using suddenly slammed down on where Ryoga's hand had been a second before. Ryoga let out an almost imperceptible squeak.

Ukyo gave Akane a tight smile as she said between gritted teeth, "Excuse us a second, Akane," and grabbed Ryoga by the collar and through a door to the back of the restaurant.

Once the door closed, she turned to Ryoga. "You idiot! What are you doing here?"

"Ugh!" Ryoga was clutched his hair with both his hands. "I failed! I couldn't be alone with her! It was too much! I was with her 5 seconds and I could feel my face turn into a cherry."

Ukyo rolled her eyes but was silent as she thought. She looked over at Ryoga, drawing nervous circles on the wall. "Stop that! You're going to push through the concrete. Let me just think for a minute." Ukyo paced. They needed a quick fix. The genderless blobs and Ukyos were not working with Akane and she knew that they hadn't been for a while, which was fine then since the first part of the plan was to get Akane somewhat interested in him from afar, limiting most one-on-one contact with her. But now…

After a few minutes, Ukyo turned back to Ryoga. "I know what we can do. You're here anyways so when you're helping her, talk to me. Don't face her, face me and talk as if you are reading to me. Since you guys are both sitting on the counter, it'll work and I'll tell Akane that I changed my mind and I would like a refresher so she won't think anything of it."

Ryoga's hands grasped Ukyo's. "Ukyo, that's genius!"

Ukyo rolled her eyes and removed her hands from his grasp, walking toward the door. "Hurry up, jackass," she called over her shoulder. "And once this study session is done, you and I will have to talk about how we can change this behavior of yours. It can't always be the three of us if you're ever going to get her to agree to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival with you."

Ukyo smiled as she walked back to where Akane sat. "So Akane, I've changed my mind. I think a refresher for the material would be good for me. Since you guys are here already, Ryoga can just help the both of us."

Akane smiled, "That's great, Ukyo!"

Ryoga sat down directly across from where Ukyo stood.

"Alright, sugar, start reading."

He pulled out a sheet of paper from his bag as Ukyo finished gathering up the ingredients. He turned the paper over and started to read the prompt. "Analyze Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43."

"Hmm, a simple enough assignment," said Akane as she watched Ukyo whisk the eggs.

Ukyo nodded, "It gives us some freedom on how we approach the topic. Read the poem, sugar."

Ryoga looked at Ukyo, reminding himself to keep his focus on her as he cleared his throat.

 **Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 - 1861**

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Ryoga felt his voice soften as the theme of the poem registered in his mind.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

He spoke slowly. His exposure to English in the past few years had been limited hence, the foreign words came to him at a measured pace.

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

He felt tingles as he continued to read out the words.

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

 _This is how I feel about Akane…_ he thought and he felt as though his heart was swelling to double its size.

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

 _Oh Akane! If only you knew!_

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

 _If I could only look at her, then she would understand._

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

 _But Ukyo's plan, I cannot forget the plan. If I looked up and speak to her, I will freeze. No, better not too!_

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

 _Forgive me, Akane! One day soon, I will stare into your eyes and read this poem, memorized to the very depth of my soul!_

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

 _Forgive me!_

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

But Ryoga was still compelled to look up and when he did, his eyes fell upon Ukyo's, who seemed frozen, staring, her cooking forgotten. His eyes could not tear away from hers as he finished the last line of the poem...

I shall but love thee better after death.

A soft blush started to form on Ryoga's cheeks as he finished the final line. So strong were his emotions, emotions he had formed by combining the words of the poem and thoughts of Akane but he had projected them to the wrong girl. And yet… Ukyo… Ukyo who stood there in her okonomiyaki costume with her hair tied in the usual manner and two spatulas held in her hands. Ukyo who was certainly not Akane but who watched him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. A pink tinge colored her face, a color that dimensionalized her in a way Ryoga had never thought would come to be in his imagination.

"Oh, Ryoga," breathed Akane, "That was beautiful."

Startled Ryoga turned to look at Akane. He remembered her then, this beautiful girl. This love of his life. _Oh Akane_. He wished to hold her and breathed the words of the poem to her again. He laughed awkwardly and placed the paper on the counter. He cleared his throat and started to analyze the poem line by line.

…

Ukyo gulped as Ryoga explained the how the poem was written in iambic pentameter. The topic was harmless. But why then was her heart beating so wildly?

When Ryoga had started reading, she had at first paid him very little heed. But then his voice had ebbed to a soft melodic tone and the words, while still mostly foreign, had grabbed at an emotion in Ukyo that she was, in all honesty, unfamiliar with. The poem was beautiful. His reading of it was beautiful. And thus, she had found herself staring at him, having abandoned the task she had been doing to listen to the lost boy quote words of untouchable but immensely relevant feelings to all present. She had watched his bent head, the light fall on his dark hair and had felt as though her heart was expanding beyond what was physically possible.

Such beautiful sentiment. Her thoughts, as he continued to read, had run to Ranma. _Would he ever know just how much I love him? Would he ever feel this way for… me?_

She had started to feel a little melancholy as her comprehension of her feelings for the pigtailed boy deepened with each line Ryoga read. And she had been about to stop him, to tell him "no more", to do something else, anything else when Ryoga had suddenly looked up and his eyes had met hers. And in them, she had seen the same depth of feeling that she felt reflected in her own soul. And perhaps even… a realization? The color in his eyes had changed, a green she had never seen before.

And then it suddenly felt as though he had been reading the poem for her the whole time. As if those beautiful words were meant for her. As if someone in the world… no, the awkward, sad, lost boy in front of her had tied upon the ridges of the words a pain in her heart she had never truly recognized. Her heart. This pain... _Was this what it felt like to be loved?_


	8. Dawned What Unexpected Friendship

**Dawned What Unexpected Friendship**

After the poetry reading at Ucchan's, Ukyo found herself inadvertently avoiding Ryoga. She had been mostly quiet as Ryoga and Akane worked on the assignment. His body had continued to face hers but Ukyo had kept her head down, working on orders for the restaurant. When Akane and Ryoga had finally finished for the day, she had shooed them out with a halfhearted smile and closed the restaurant doors.

She had felt tired, her body was stiff from avoiding the lost boy's gaze, not that it was on her very much she thought, remembering all his furtive glances to Akane and subsequent blushes that for some reason annoyed Ukyo.

She had gone to sleep that night and dreamt of some strange standoff between Ryoga and Ranma for Akane's hand. They were to fight each other, which was not unusual but the fact that they had weapons and their choice of weapons were. Ranma had picked an amberjack, a giant gray-blue fish with a yellow strip down its middle and Ryoga had selected an Alantic Bluefin tuna, a gray fish as large as he was. They had stood facing each other, both holding their respective fishes by their tail, the fishy bodies flung behind their backs. At first they had merely stared at each other, then they both let out simultaneous battle cries and to Ukyo's surprise started banging the fish against a giant teddy bear that appeared out of nowhere, with Akane's name emitting from the opened lips of both boys. When the seams of the teddy bear started to rip and its stuffing began to flow, Ukyo found herself suddenly standing between the two of them, being slapped in the face by giant fish.

She had woken with a start. The alarm on her clock was beeping, a harmless reminder for her to go to school. Groaning, she slapped the snooze button, wrapped her blankets securely around her, turned around, and immediately fell back asleep.

…

Ryoga was confused. He had gone to school early that day, as he had done the day before due to his ability to get lost and because he and Ukyo had been arriving separately since Ukyo needed to make her monthly supply runs for the restaurant in the morning. He had walked through the classroom doors quite happy, having been immensely satisfied with his study session with Akane yesterday and the following walk home where he had had some alone time with her. Akane had thanked him prettily and had told him how impressed she had been with his knowledge on poetic structure as well as his beautiful reading voice. Ryoga had used every fiber of his being to beat down a blush and a stammer. She had turned to go into the house when he had reached out suddenly, taking her hand with trembling fingers and noticed how prettily the brisk weather painted her nose and cheeks. He then quoted a well-known Shakespearean line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate…" (said in Japanese, not English )

Ryoga had actually been surprised when the words had left his lips for he hadn't even known that he had memorized those words but he had been glad he did for the timing could not have been more perfect. Akane had blushed prettily and thanking him again, he saw her almost accidentally bump into the door frame as she walked into the house. She had turned back for a second and he had seen embarrassment on her face but then she had smiled, said her farewell once more and ran in, closing the door behind her.

He had affected her! For once, it was she who had blushed! Ryoga could not have been happier if his pig curse had lifted.

But now Ryoga was frowning. He had walked into class early and had sat down at his desk and watched as his classmates came in one by one, everyone except the girl whom he had wanted to talk to. He had half wanted to run back to Ucchan's after his brief moment with Akane, to tell Ukyo the good news but thought to leave it until the following school day, where he was certain he would see her.

But when the final student walked through the doors, there was still no Ukyo. And then the teacher followed, closing the door behind her, signaling that everyone who was going to be there that day was there. _Where is she?_

Ryoga chanced a glance at Ranma and Akane. They too were looking at Ukyo's empty desk.

"Hey, Ryoga," Ranma hissed, "where's Ukyo?"

Ryoga shrugged. He felt his brows knot in worry. Ukyo would have told him if she wasn't coming to school that day, or at least he felt like she would have. They had gotten rather close in the past 10 days mostly due to the close proximity her plan had forced upon them but also because well, it was kind of easy. Sometime in the past week and a half, he had started to see her as a friend.

…

By lunch time, Ryoga came to the conclusion that Ukyo was sick. No one else had heard from her and if she had been out for some other reason, she would have told someone. Thus, by the time his second to final class ended, Ryoga had decided to stop by Ucchan's before he had to head over to the Tendo house to continue with his study sessions with Akane. Since his final class was a study period, Ryoga left the school grounds early and made his way to Ukyo's. Once there, he noticed that Ucchan's was closed.

 _That's right_ , he thought to himself Konatsu was visiting family and would be back in a week and Ukyo generally only opened for dinner when Konatsu was gone during the week days.

The set of stairs to the side of the restaurant led to Ukyo's apartment, which sat right above Ucchan's. Once at the top of the stairs, Ryoga knocked but no answer came. He knocked again but again nothing. He looked up; there was an open window that he was sure led to Ukyo's bedroom. Debating for a second whether he should just leave, Ryoga squared his shoulders in decision and jumped, landing on the window sill, crouching low with his hands grasping the sides for purchase. The window wasn't very large, perhaps 3 by 3 feet but it was of sufficient enough size to let him through.

Once inside, he found himself in strangely dark room; the light from the outside barely illuminated the place since Ukyo's window faced away from the sun. He had never been in Ukyo's bedroom before. It was fairly simple, with very little adornments. It was clean and straight to the point, much like the owner herself. There was a wardrobe at the far end of the room and a desk with only a lamp and a book atop it. An unadorned chair sat next to the table and across from it was a twin sized bed. The bed caught Ryoga's attention for several reasons; one being that it was the only part of the whole room with any type of decoration. It was littered with pillows, about 5 from what he counted, and the pillow sheets and blanket were white but scattered in swirling patterns were pale pink flowers. In any other girl's room, Ryoga wouldn't have thought twice about its being there but this was Ukyo's room and flowers had seemed far too feminine for the girl he knew.

The second reason was due to the very girl herself. A pillow was lying carelessly on the floor and two other pillows lay precariously close to the edge of the bed. The blanket was mostly bunched up to one corner and on the middle of the bed, was a still form. Ukyo was lying on her side, a pillow under head but just off center and another was held firmly between her arms. Her hair was loose, it was the first time Ryoga had ever seen it thus and it spread out in silky waves on top the sheets. She wore light green shorts and a slightly large white t-shirt, which must have rose up slightly during her sleep for Ryoga could see half of her pale, flat stomach.

Ryoga blushed, immediately turning away from the sight. Why was she still in bed? She couldn't be feeling well if Ukyo Kuonji was still in bed in the middle of the afternoon. Ignoring the flush on his face that he was sure was the result of his being in a girl's bedroom while she slept, he walked up to the sleeping form and reached over to shake Ukyo's shoulders in an attempt to wake her.

At first, Ukyo did not budge but then as he continued to shake her and whisper her name, Ukyo suddenly turned around. Ryoga not having expected the sudden movement was dragged onto the bed, one hand that had been on her left shoulder was now wedge under it and his body was squished between the wall and the sleeping girl.

So surprised was he that Ryoga's mouth shut tightly and his whole body stiffened, fear tingling his spine as he waited for the girl to wake up and inevitably hit him, possibly with a fury he had yet to experience from her. But again, her eyes did not open. As quietly as he possibly could, he tried to remove his hand from under her but found that he could not due to the awkward angle of his body's position and the limited space between them. Finally having given up, Ryoga raised his free hand slowly and reached across to gently touched Ukyo's shoulder. "Ukyo," he whispered and found himself staring at her face. A moment ago, her expression had been impassive and he had remembered idly thinking that she had looked peaceful but now a crease had formed between her brows and her lips were turned slightly downward into a frown.

 _She's dreaming_ , he thought. He continued to watch in silence as Ukyo's face shifted again, the frown having disappeared and her bottom lip was now between her teeth. The crease between her brows remained. Ryoga watched, horrified as tears started falling from her closed eyes, making her lashes stick to her cheeks as the drops drew a wet path down to the sheets below.

Ryoga was immobilized. He had seen a girl cry before but the girl had always been Akane and his first thought was to either punch Ranma, who was usually the reason for her tears or to comfort her. But this time there was no one to punch and the girl who was crying was not Akane.

His eyes roamed her face; taking in features he had never previously given much more than a glance. The Ukyo before him now looked vulnerable and he felt a tiny but odd tug at his heart. What could have rendered such a strong girl like her into such a state? he wondered and before he knew it, his free hand had moved up her face and his thumb gently brushed away the tear that was falling down her right cheek.

Ryoga immediately retracted his hand and flushed a terrible shade of red as soon as his actions registered in his mind. Though Ukyo was not awake and hence, no one had seen his rather affectionate display, he was incredibly embarrassed.

A shaky sigh escaped from her slightly parted lips but the tears had finally stopped. Ryoga watched again fascinated as her face returned to the normal state of rest he had seen earlier. It again looked peaceful but a trace of the former sadness remained. Perhaps it was the familiarity of the emotion or perhaps it was his recent realization that they were friends but whatever it was, Ryoga suddenly realized that he didn't like its presence on her normally positive and straightforward face.

With his new found awareness regarding the sleeping girl, Ryoga took a harder look at her. Had she always looked like this? Her lashes were long and she had a small and slightly upturned nose. Her lips were narrow but full and her bangs fell gracefully across her forehead, softening her features and casting them slightly in a mysterious shadow.

For once at that very moment and probably for just that moment, as they both lay in her bed, facing each other, Ryoga could not for the life of him see her as anything but a woman.

Ukyo suddenly shifted and Ryoga found that she had freed his hand from beneath her. As he had grown uncomfortable with his thoughts, he immediately took the opportunity to get up and off the bed in the fastest speed his body would allow while also retaining the silence. He headed toward the window almost at a run but when he reached it, something compelled him to turn back and when he did, the form that lay on the bed appeared small and helpless to him, almost like a child's and he felt an odd impulse to rush back and – _do what?_ his inner voice asked him. Ryoga shook his head, trying to free himself from the weirdly overpowering feeling of protectiveness for the girl still lying asleep. He looked at her still form for a second longer.

They had shared a moment even if she had not been awake to realize it. His face burned and Ryoga took that as a cue to leave. Crawling out the window and closing it behind him, he jumped back onto the street. He did not turn back even once as he ran toward any direction not caring where his lack of sense would take him.

…

Ryoga found his way to the Tendo house later that night. He had been an hour late due to his poor sense of direction and the fact that after he had run away from Ukyo's, he had found himself in a part of the neighborhood he rarely ventured. Akane had forgiven him immediately when he had murmured a sincere apology and they had sat at her living room table.

Akane's oldest sister, Kasumi had walked in, asking Ryoga if he wanted some tea, to which he politely declined.

For the next hour or so, Ryoga kept his focus purely on the work, trying his hardest to avoid looking directly at Akane. Ukyo wasn't there this time and he couldn't have brought himself to ask her to come, especially not with what had happened in her house only a few hours ago. He felt his mind revert itself back to the time in her room.

"Ryoga, does this make sense?" Akane's voice cut through his unwanted thoughts and he silently sighed in gratitude. He hadn't wanted to go back there.

Ryoga turned to look at what Akane pointed to and leaned forward onto the paper, making a few remarks when he heard the sliding doors behind him open and a large weight fell on his head. A black pig tail suddenly crowded his vision and a second later so did Ranma's upside down face, a pair of blue eyes staring right into his.

"Hey Ryoga, did you see Ukyo today? I stopped by her place just now and Ucchan's was closed." Ryoga felt heat flood his face as he tried to swipe Ranma off his head but Ranma had jumped off and landed next to Akane.

"Ucchan's wasn't open?" asked Akane, immediately following it with "That's right, she wasn't in school today." Her face looked concerned, "I hope she's okay."

 _She's still not up?_

"I don't know, you jerk. I hadn't seen her today." _Lies. Lies. Lies._ His face burned even more.

"Do you think she's sick? Maybe we should go over there now to make sure she's okay."

"Were you not listening to me, Akane? I said I was just over there."

Akane gave Ranma an annoyed glance, "if she's sick, Ranma, she may not be able to open the door or she'll be asleep and won't hear it. Honestly." She turned to Ryoga and smiled, "I think we can stop for now since tomorrow is the weekend. Will you be able to help me on Sunday so we can go and check on Ukyo?"

All Ryoga could answer with was a nod. He frowned. _Could she actually have been sick?_ He had been so caught up in the strange situation with her that he had completely forgotten the reason he had gone to her house in the first place.

Ryoga and Ranma watched as Akane ran up the stairs to put away her books and rushed down a moment later. The trio then promptly made their way to Ukyo's. When they arrived, the scene before them was just as before, Ucchan's sat dark and quiet and no light came from the rooms above. Ryoga noted that the window to her bedroom was still open.

"Hey Ukyo!" Ranma banged on her apartment door. "Open up!"

"Ranma!" Akane chided, "You're going to wake the whole neighborhood."

"Who's asleep at this time?"

Akane blushed and her voice rose "well you're being too loud!"

"Who's the loud one?"

"Urg! You… you!"

Ranma mimicked her words and stuck his tongue out at her.

All of a sudden, a light went on behind the door and it quickly opened. Ukyo was standing in her doorway, her eyes puffy and her nose pink. Her blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. She looked as though she just got up, which was probably the case Ryoga thought.

"Ukyo," Akane said, immediately stopping her fight with Ranma.

"Hey Ucchan, you don't look so good." He "uft"ed when Akane's elbow made contact with his side. "What'd you do that for?" he grumbled.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ukyo asked, looking at the two and her eyes fell on Ryoga but quickly moved away back to the others.

"We were worried about you," said Akane as Ukyo stepped aside to let them in. Ukyo removed her blanket and gently placed it on a chair near the door.

"You were?"

"Yeah, Ucchan, you weren't at school and when I came by to see what's up, Ucchan's was closed."

"You were worried too, Ranma?" she asked. Ryoga noticed her voice had softened and she was looking at the pig tailed boy with a gentle gaze.

"Why wouldn't I be? Ya know you're my friend."

"Oh… right." Ryoga saw Ukyo's shoulder sag a little. She signaled all of them to take a seat at the low rectangular table in her living room as she proceeded to gather some snacks.

"Are you feeling better, Ukyo?" asked Akane.

Ukyo turned and smiled at her, setting down a plate of green tea mocha in front of them "I was just feeling a little under the weather today but I think I'll be fine soon."

Ranma stuffed a particularly large green cake into his mouth. "That's good 'cause it's the weekend ya know and we're heading over to the hot springs tomorrow and don't want ya to miss out."

"Oh, that's right," said Ukyo. "Don't worry, Ranchan, I'll be there."

They spoke for another 15 minutes after which Akane mentioned Ukyo having to get some more rest if she was going to be able to go the natural hot springs in the mountains with them the following morning. Akane and Ranma said their goodbyes and headed toward the Tendo house but Ryoga lingered a minute longer.

He looked at her. Once their friends were out of ear shot, he asked, "Are you really okay?"

Ukyo turned, a little surprised to see he was still there. The face that looked back at her was oddly serious and full of concern. Her thoughts abruptly ran back to the day before and she tamped down an unexpected burst of nervousness. "I'm fine, sugar." She smiled and worried that it hadn't reached her eyes. "I guess I just needed some rest."

She watched as Ryoga just nodded, his gaze suddenly on the floor near her feet. An awkward silence seemed to come between them. Then Ryoga looked up. "That's good," he said, smiling. "I have some good news for you too." And he proceeded to tell her about his moment with Akane the previous night. He was smiling widely, his eyes far away, back to the night before as he finished his tale.

Ukyo smiled back but felt that the lines around her lips were tight. "That's great, sugar" she said, her voice weak. She smiled again, a small one this time as though as she felt weariness take over her body. Ryoga looked at her and nodded, mumbling that he had to get back home if he was going to get there in time to wake up early the following morning. He turned to leave but something stopped him.

He stood there for a minute, not saying a word, and Ukyo's brows knotted. "Ry—."

"Feel better, Ukyo," he said quietly, without turning around.

"Wha—" But he was gone and all see saw a tiny gray form, running in the distance away from her house.

Despite her confusion and weariness, she let out a small laugh.

The idiot had gone the wrong way.

…

 **Writer's notes** : Firstly, thank you everyone for all your comments! I enjoyed reading them! If you have any questions, you can ask me there and I will answer via these little notes.

Some of you might think that what Ryoga said to Akane was quite mean since in Sonnet 18, Shakespeare is actually saying that beauty is fleeting and that she is only important now because he writes of her and only through here will she receive a vague immortality, vague because it could be applied to any beauty. So I did this on purpose because while slow, ultimately, I want Ryoga and Ukyo to get together and I've saved a poem that's more fitting for when that finally comes to fruition.

Ryoga is just being a little dummy; he just remembered those two lines and nothing more so it's safe to say he didn't even know what the poem was about just yet.


End file.
